The European Commission has approved the proposal to renegotiate PNRR and formal approval by the Council of the European Union is expected on August 7, says the interim Minister of Investments and European Projects, Dragoș Pîslaru.

“Good news, exclusively, from Brussels: the European Commission has just approved the proposal to renegotiate PNRR today. The last step is next: formal approval by the Council of the European Union, on August 7. After months of work to save as many investments and as much European money as possible for Romania, we have reached the point where everything now depends only on Romania’s capacity to deliver the promised reforms. And, unfortunately, this is where the film breaks down. While in Brussels we are achieving fantastic results, in Bucharest, Mr. Sorin Grindeanu announces that the PSD will not vote on the salary law and threatens to sabotage the reform regarding integrity in the civil service as well”, the minister states on his Facebook page.

According to him, the reform on the unitary salary was successively postponed and pushed from one payment request to another, and the salary reform was not carried out for years.

“Even Mr. Grindeanu admits today that the milestone was moved from payment request 3 to payment request 6. For years the reform was not done. Now, when it must finally be delivered, we are told again: we are not voting,” claims Pîslaru.

He also accuses that, on the subject of integrity in the public service, the PSD is trying to move the discussion towards Dominic Fritz and other individual cases instead of discussing how the National Integrity Agency can be strengthened.

“It is a diversion. The reform is not about a man, a party or a file. It is about the capacity of the Romanian state to have clear rules and efficient institutions to defend integrity in the public service,” says the source quoted by Agerpres.

Dragoș Pîslaru also states that on the urban planning reform, Romania has wasted years in blockages and conflicts regarding the powers to issue building permits, including in the dispute between the PSD sector administrations and the City Hall of the Capital, instead of modernizing the legislation and reducing bureaucracy.

The interim minister states that on decarbonization, reforms were also pushed until the last moment, and Romania ended up negotiating under the pressure of deadlines and the risk of losing European funds.

“You cannot demand billions of euros from the European Union and, at the same time, refuse the reforms to which Romania has committed itself. You cannot say that you want the PNRR, but reject the milestones in the PNRR. You cannot applaud European money and sabotage the conditions assumed by Romania to receive it.(…)

In all these years, the PSD has practiced the policy of delay, postponing the decision each time precisely for fear of not assuming any responsibility.

“The government led by Ilie Bolojan pushed the reforms forward with all its might, we assumed the difficult decisions and proved that we can have responsible politicians in the Government, who act in the interest of the country. The PNRR does not belong to a party. It does not belong to a minister. It does not belong to a government.

It is a plan for the development of Romania: highways, hospitals, schools, digitalization, energy, modernization of the administration and billions of euros that change the lives of Romanians for the better. “So I make a very clear call for responsibility to the PSD: do not, gentlemen from the PSD, put Romania’s future in danger for your petty political agenda,” Dragoș Pîslaru also says.